Post 10: Book 3 Review

In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis writes a book that takes his characters into  a whole new world where animals talk,  trees can walk around, and any living being can be turned to stone with the touch of a wand.

                As I have stated before in an earlier blog, I liked the idea of the story but the book was a little slow for me. Also, I didn’t like the fact that the battle at the end of the book was only two pages. The journey was crammed into only 206 pages and the pages were kind of small. It should have had longer pages, a longer battle and at least 300 pages.

                For the characters, I liked how they were together.  Though they discovered Narnia at different times, they still managed to believe the impossible that a simple wardrobe leads into a fantasy land. When Lucy first went in the wardrobe, she went in by herself and couldn’t believe it. Then Edmund followed her into wardrobe and went into Narnia and couldn’t believe that Lucy was telling the truth. When Lucy told Peter and Susan that she saw Edmund there, Edmund lied and said he wasn’t there with her. Eventually, Peter and Susan decided to go into Narnia with Peter to find Lucy after she disappeared. Eventually they find Lucy and follow a bird that leads them to meeting Mr. Beaver.

                After all four of them encounter Mr. Beaver, they learn that they are the four Kings and Queens that is described in the Prophecy. He also mentions the fact that there is a great King called Aslan who is supposed to be coming to Narnia. As described by Mr. Beaver, “’He'll be coming and going’" meaning that he goes off into other lands for periods of time and comes to Narnia occasionally. During this part of the book is slow because they go into a lot of detail about the whole Prophecy and the situation Narnia in which the Witch made it, “Always winter but never Christmas”. Meanwhile, Edmund sneaks out of the Beavers house and goes to the White Witch that he met in his first time in Narnia.

                Throughout, the plot goes fast and slows up at different parts of the book.  In it, they describe the state of Narnia in 10 pages while they describe the battle at the end in two pages. The plot could have been written better by keeping a steady pace throughout the story. The book leads up to a lot of anticipation for the final battle at the end, but C.S. Lewis condenses the battle into a few pages which kills the book likability.

                Throughout the book, you see the theme of good versus evil, especially through Edmund’s case. After encountering the White Witch, he wants to take her side because she gave him the best Turkish Delight he ever had. After leaving his siblings, he goes back to inform the Witch that his siblings are in Narnia and that Aslan is coming to fight for the Liberation of the creatures from the Witch. When Edmund goes with the Witch to find Aslan, you start to see the change in Edmund to join the side of Aslan. After a few of Aslan’s troops save Edmund from the Witch, he commits himself to Aslan’s army.

                The fact that Aslan sacrificed himself for Edmund was also something that was interesting. The Witch wanted blood and in exchange for Edmund, Aslan decided to give into the Witch’s need for blood. Despite dying, Aslan was able to come back alive because of a deep magic that the Witch didn’t know about in Narnia.

                Overall, this book deserves a 3-star rating out of 5 because the plot of the story was a good one, but the pacing of it was poor which is why it lost a star. Also, the climax was poor with all of the anticipation building up throughout the book which took a star away from a perfect score. The movie did a better job of expressing the climax and it was paced well throughout. If you are interested in the movie, here's its trailer:

Post 7: Argo Book Trailer

Post 11: Book Talk Presentation

Post 9: Likable Heroes and Villians

When I think of a hero in a book, I think of a likable character that goes on an adventure.  They don’t necessarily need to be in a literary piece or a more contemporary piece.  I don’t feel like there needs to be a direct connection between the genre of the book and the narrator. For example, take the movie The Other Guys. The movie is supposed to be about a serious matter of two detectives trying to solve the mystery of a guy covering losses in investments by stealing other people’s money. Throughout the movie, elements of comedy are introduced. They have a narrator throughout the story that comes in and out. He shares the situation at certain parts of the movie and has a serious attitude about it. Despite the seriousness, there is a lot of comedy throughout. Overall, it is probably one of my favorite comedy movies of all-time.

Right now, I am reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In there,  I like the plot of the adventure because not only did Edmund join the side of the witch, but came back from the evil side. Also, Aslan died and came back to life. I am almost at the battle at the end of the story and I felt that C.S. Lewis set the stage for a good end to the book, I can’t wait for it.

Post 8: Thoughts of Non-Truthful Memoirs

When I hear the word memoir, I think of true stories. Apparently, that's not the most followed assumption. Over the years, many writers have written what they call "memoirs". In reality, their stories are skewed with stretching the truth and even making up the story all together.

My opinion of memoirs is 100% truth. Well, some of the story may not be truthful because the author may have a perspective that can be different from that of the reader. That is the only exception I can think of for a memoir, besides that, I expect the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

I think that a half-truth story is fine, as long as it is under the fiction genre. As long as the story is good, I'll read it. Some of my favorite books are realistic fiction and those have some truth to them. Some real events, some real people, the story happening in a real time in history, no doubt that I wouldn't mind reading about it. As long the genre fits with the story, I'll read it.

I think we take genres for granted, or maybe that's just me. Probably because when I find a fascinating book, I'll pick it up and read it. I don't care whether it is fiction or non-fiction, I'll read it. Talking about the truth when it comes to stories in class, I found out that I do mind whether non-fiction does tell the truth or not. The next time I find a fascinating book, I'll make sure that book matches the genre it is suppose to be.

Post 6: Readicide

I believe that readicide is a problem in today's schools. A lot of the teaching today is to prepare a student to pass a test rather than pursue a journey of wanting to read. I think the problem of readicide is the overanalyzing. I know that tests are important but courses are to driven to passing a test. For example, I think that Of Mice and Men was a good book, but we overanalyzed it too much for me to completely enjoy it. Analyzing is like the teacher that teaches you the material needed to be successful. They then tell you to work on your own on a project, but start to teach you something unrelated to your project. They are basically taking time away from you to completely enjoy the process of making your project. I don’t believe that genre fiction is less “worthy” than Literary Fiction because the enjoyment of reading in my opinion is to read something that fascinate you the reader. I think that we should allow students to read more books that fascinate them, no reading list is necessary. If we do, than I think people will rediscover the enjoyment of reading. With all the controversy of Literary versus Genre Fiction, I am on neither side. I like books on both sides of the spectrum. Some people might like Genre better than Literary or vice versa. People should explore what kinds of books they like to read and read them.

                I think that kids should read books because it helps them prepare for their future. Once they start to pursue a career, they would want to find more information about that career. How, through reading. Even though visual aids and videos are becoming more popular, the basis of showing how to demonstrate it will, require the skill of reading.

Post 5: Adopting the Book into a Movie

Right now I'm past the halfway mark in the book I am currently reading, Argo and I'm not really enjoying it that much. But if I had to make a new movie about the book, the three scenes I would still keep are the scene when the U.S. Embassy is being overrun, Tony assembling his team to enter Iran and the escapees of the Embassy seeking a safe haven with the Canadians. In the scene of the Embassy attack, I would show women flooding the grounds of the embassy like what really happened then the militants sneaking through the crowd to enter the buildings. After the workers isolate themselves from the outside, so them giving up and handing themselves into the militants. For the scene of assembling the team, I would show Tony calling for people to come in and him introducing each person of the team. In the scenes for the escapees of the attack, I would show them jump from every little place that they took refuge temporarily, leading up to them entering the Canadian Embassy.
Some scenes that I would cut out are the ones where he is in his art studio at home as well as the exfiltrations that he mentioned that he was a part of leading up to that current setting of the story. They had a scene at the beginning of the book where he is talking about painting in his home art studio and don't see the relevance to the main plot of the story which is helping to free the hostages at the Embassy. With the exfiltrations that Tony was a part of before the hostage crisis are interesting to help with his mission, though I feel that they distract you away from the real plot for the story.
All in all, I think that the book goes into too much detail about the people involved and there are too many side stories that distract you from the general plot. In the my rendition of the movie, I would make the main plot the focus of the movie with an occasional background story leading up to current setting.